Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rejected President Bola Tinubu’s description of his proposed intervention in Nigeria’s petroleum sector as economically ignorant , accusing the administration of worsening the cost-of-living crisis while celebrating increased government revenues.

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Atiku, in a statement issued on his behalf by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Friday, said the President was in no position to lecture Nigerians on economic management after the removal of petrol subsidy, the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market and the subsequent rise in inflation, transport costs and household expenses.

“The real ignorance is believing suffering is economic policy. Tinubu removed the subsidy from Nigerians’ pockets, but he is yet to remove the questions from his books,” he said.

The former vice president said his proposal was not a return to the subsidy regime that preceded the Tinubu administration, but a targeted and temporary production-support mechanism designed to increase domestic refining and protect consumers from excessive price shocks.

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He said the economic circumstances confronting Nigerians had changed substantially since Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023, making it necessary to reassess existing policy prescriptions.

“Economic prescriptions respond to prevailing conditions,” Atiku said. “But other things are no longer equal in Tinubu’s Nigeria.”

According to him, the removal of subsidy without adequate measures to cushion its effects triggered a chain reaction across the economy, with petrol prices, transportation costs and food prices rising sharply while the naira also depreciated significantly.

“Atiku is not proposing the resurrection of the corrupt, open-ended subsidy bazaar. He proposes a targeted, capped, budgeted, time-bound and independently audited production-support mechanism tied to domestic production and protected against arbitrage,” the statement read in part.

Atiku’s comments came after President Tinubu criticised proposals to restore or introduce another form of petroleum subsidy, labelling Atiku’s proposed model as a “demonstration of serious ignorance on governance and economy.”

Atiku accused the administration of applying what he called a rigid approach to subsidy removal despite the severe economic consequences that followed.

📰 Source: Punch Nigeria